Dom and Kurt: First Impressions

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Domino and Kurt meet for the first time. Kurt is friendly and furry. Dom is... awkward.

From time to time, Kurt liked to visit the X-Force offices, to see both Amanda and Jubilee - more the former, since he lived with Jubilee, but sometimes she was only there briefly between travelling to one place or another, so they'd meet while she was in the mansion.

He was stepping out of the offices from one of these times when he almost literally walked into a woman whose face he'd seen on the journals but never met before.

"Oh! Forgive me."

"Holy--" Dom had just been walking along, minding her own business, when all of a sudden she nearly collided with. Well.

A monster.

Not a monster. A... well, a blue man with a rather devilish-looking demeanour. She recovered from her shock pretty quickly, she thought, reaching up to run a hand through her hair. "Uh, it's okay. Sorry. I guess I wasn't watching where I was going."

"Clearly neither was I", he said, still apologetic, and taking a step back as he'd seen the look on her face. It was nothing new, and he wasn't terribly offended, but neither did he want to make her any more uneasy. "Kurt Sefton."

"Yeah. I mean, uh. Dom. I... have a real name, but most people just call me that."

"It is nice to meet you, Dom", he said with a smile. "You work with X-Force?"

"Yeah, me and my partner Syd, we used to be independent or whatever, but Kane said these guys went through some sort of thing, needed some help, so..." She shrugged. Don't look at his ears. Or his eyes. Or... his TAIL? What the...

"What about you? I mean, obviously you're not with X-Force, but what do you do?"

"I teach. And I am with - I presume you must have heard of the X-Men. But Amanda, here, is my sister and Jubilee my partner, so I am often in this part of the house."

"Oh, right! You're Kurt!" When she had heard about Jubilee's boyfriend she hadn't imagined him looking like... this. "It's, uh, nice to meet you."

"Likewise", he said, grinning. "And I see I have been spoken of?"

"Yeah, you know Jubilee. She... talks. A lot."

"So she does", Kurt agreed with deep affection. "I hope I am not delaying you?"

"Huh? Oh, no, I was just... going to get a snack." Dom motioned vaguely down the hall; she had the basics in the fridge in her suite, but the big kitchen had practically everything and she had a real craving for apples and peanut butter. Thinking about food at least distracted her from thinking about what his powers might be. If he was an X-Man he had to have some, right?

"Ah!" He smiled. "Then I will go with you, I think. It is about time I ate."

"Cool, cool."

They walked towards the kitchen and Dom tried to think of something to fill the silence. "Oh! What do you teach?" That was a good, safe subject.

"German", he told her. "Mostly German. Sometimes gymnastics, or other languages if someone wishes to learn them."

"German? I started learning German a while back, for a job. It was pretty cool."

"I enjoy it", Kurt said with a smile. "It is my second language, but followed the first very closely."

"Your first? You mean English?" He certainly didn't sound like a native English speaker.

"No, no", he said easily. "I was raised in a gypsy camp, speaking Romani as my very first language."

"Romani? Wow, that's..."

"Very unusual. I know. It was... quite a sheltered upbringing."

"Yeah? How so?"

"I looked like this from birth", he said simply. "Things were not quite so bad then, but even so, my parents kept me away from outsiders for safety's sake. They taught me themselves."

"Oh, wow, so you were homeschooled? Yeah, okay, that is pretty sheltered," Dom said, grinning.

"I did have other children to play with", he noted, clearly having no problem with his upbringing. "My older brother, and later a younger sister, and the other children of the clan."

"Sure. And Amanda's pretty cool, so." They turned into the kitchen, and Dom made a beeline for the cupboard, raking through it until she found not one but two jars of peanut butter. Score.

"Yes, she is", Kurt agreed easily, not wanting to tell Amanda's story if she hadn't. "You are very fond of peanut butter?"

"Huh? Oh, y'know, that and ramen noodles. Got me through college."

"And old favourites never lose their appeal", he said with a nod. "Even when there are more choices available."

She shot a look at him over her shoulder. "Yeah, I guess not. What's your old favourites?"

"Cheese on toast is always a good one. With the toast done over a real fire. And I try to make an approximation of my mother's meat stew every so often."

"Sounds good." There was always a bunch of fresh fruit out on the kitchen island, so Dom was able to snag a shiny-looking apple from the bowl and then get to work chopping it into slices. "So you teach, do gymnastics, save the world and cook? No wonder Jubes has got you all locked up."

He laughed.

"Very much so. Though it would be wise never to allow me in the kitchen if I have been drinking. There was an incident with chicken and waffles..."

"Chicken and waffles and booze sounds amazing though!"

"The resident chef of the time did not think so", he said ruefully, "when she saw the mess. But Wade and I did make good."

"Yeah, well, if you ever choose to recreate the experience again, let me know. I'll even help clean up the mess."

Kurt laughed. "I will be sure to do that. Do you have a healing factor of any kind?"

"...uh, no?" She suddenly looked very worried - what had she volunteered for?

"Good!" He looked satisfied. "Drinking with healing-factor types is never as much fun in the morning when they have shrugged off the hangover and are smug about it."

"Ohhhh right." She gave a sigh of relief and smirked as she piled her apple slices on a plate. "Yeah, my luck doesn't extend that far unfortunately."

"Nor mine." He grinned back. "I threw a speedster in the lake once for being smug. With the help of a telekinetic to catch him."

"That seems fair."

"He was a good friend. But he really was asking for it."

Dom nodded her understanding; not that she was capable of throwing Syd in a lake, but there were definitely times he deserved it. "Well, um, cool. I'm gonna head back now, I've got a bunch of stuff to analyse but... it was nice to meet you." And it had been, despite the blue fur and weird eyes. She'd have to ask Jubilee later how she dealt with the whole... package.

"You too", he said with a smile, meaning it. "I am sure we will meet again sometime."

It was surprising they'd avoided it for so long, really. But then the mansion could be very large when it wanted to - and very small when you didn't want it to.